Murine Embryonic Stems Cells: H3K27me3 in Undifferentiated (UD) and Day 3 (D3) differentiated ES cells

ChIP on chip for H3K27me3 in murine ES cells comparing Undifferentiated and Day 3 differentiated. Paper Abstract: How polycomb group proteins repress gene expression in vivo is not known. Whilst histone modifying activities of the polycomb repressive complexes have been studied extensively, in vitro data has suggested a direct activity of the PRC1 complex in compacting chromatin. Here, we investigate higher-order chromatin compaction of polycomb targets in vivo. We show that polycomb repressive complexes are required to maintain a compact chromatin state at Hox loci in embryonic stem (ES) cells. There is specific decompaction in the absence of PRC2 or PRC1. This is due to PRC1, since decompaction occurs in Ring1B null cells that still have PRC2-mediated H3K27 methylation. Moreover, we show that the ability of Ring1B to restore a compact chromatin state, and to repress Hox gene expression in ES cells, is not dependent on its histone ubiquitination activity. We suggest that Ring1B-mediated chromatin compaction acts to directly limit transcription in vivo. Biological replicates: 3 independently grown, harvested, micrococcal nuclease digested and ChIP for H3K27me3. 6 Technical replicates.